Posted: Saturday, September 28, 2013 9:00 pm | Updated: 9:57 pm, Sat Sep 28, 2013.
For the last two decades, Glacier Jazz Stampede has been filling downtown Kalispell with the sounds of jazz.
From its inception in 1994, the festival has drawn musicians and music lovers to the Flathead Valley to celebrate an original American art form — live, loud jazz music.
“We blew the walls out last night!” festival co-founder Ray Garner told the Inter Lake after the first Glacier Jazz Stampede’s opening concert at the Kalispell Elks Lodge.
“I don’t think there have ever been so many people crammed into the Elks. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
In recent years, the festival has moved to the Eagles Club and the Red Lion Hotel Kalispell. But the event’s focus on celebrating great jazz music has remained unchanged.
The festival features musicians who play a variety of jazz genres, from cool jazz to swing. But from the start, Glacier Jazz Stampede’s primary focus has been traditional jazz — also known as Dixieland or hot jazz — the genre’s earliest form, said Karla West, the event’s other co-founder.
That type of music isn’t often played anymore, she added.
“The only place to hear bands like this is at festivals like this one,” she said.
There are still plenty of bands that play traditional jazz, and they welcome opportunities such as Glacier Jazz Stampede to celebrate the music they love, West said.
“There are no shortages of bands that want to come,” she said.
West, a jazz pianist, met many of the musicians who will perform at the stampede decades ago when she played at festivals around the country. They have maintained a tight camaraderie, bound by their mutual love for the music, and West always has plenty of musicians to choose from to perform at the Flathead festival.
Read more: http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_bf4c028e-28ba-11e3-9d22-001a4bcf887a.html
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